Thomas Jefferson: “Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank”

About the Author

Born April 13, 1743, into a planter family in the Tidewater region of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson received the best his world could offer. He studied at the College of William and Mary, married into a prominent family, and would have been content to spend the rest of his life as a tobacco planter. When hostilities broke out in 1775, however, Jefferson rose through the ranks of Virginia politics, serving as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress—where he drafted the Declaration of Independence—and as the state's governor. When conflict subsided, Jefferson traveled to France on behalf of the fledgling United States before returning home at the beginning of the Washington administration. He subsequently served as secretary of state, vice president, and, for two terms, president of the United States. He retired to Monticello, his family estate near Charlottesville, Virginia, where he also founded the University of Virginia. He died July 4, 1826. Jefferson believed that an agrarian society would best perpetuate American liberty, which he typically defined as independence and self-government rather than as financial success.